Solving the Unsolvable: Western Responses to Otherness From Saint Augustine

Theodor Adorno's writings on the interdependence of subject and object provided the impetus for this project. Following Adorno the work argues that agency comes from an awareness of the limitations of one's conception of the world and more generally of the existence of an external world beyond human determinations. In order to avoid the pitfalls of an unintelligible jargon through an abstract discussion that runs the risk of becoming esoteric, I then looks at concrete examples, instances in the past, of individuals struggling to find what they took to be an authentic subjectivity and, intertwined with this, a means of coming to terms with otherness. At the same time, I attempt to show by way of these examples—the point of origin for what I take to be ideologies that sought to eliminate the place for the subject. My intention is to examine the genesis of the Western expectation that otherness was something ephemeral, or illusory, something that could be definitively overcome. By virtue of the interdependence of subject and object, and in turn of agency as a product of the recognition of the non-identical, I argue that it is by tracing this moment and its implications that one can also find the starting point for, and thus have a better understanding of, contemporary attempts to eliminate, or constrain, the subject. As with Adorno's negative dialectics I want to clear a path to otherness through showing the failure of man's conceptions, but in this case through showing the failures of man's conceptions of himself rather than the failures of his conceptions of the external world. It is my contention that Saint Augustine’s theology, with his City of God especially as its culmination, present a kind of threshold for this kind of thinking, a point at which the wave of humility before the object and doubts about man’s place in the universe and his destiny, that perhaps prior to him had risen and fallen, finally broke and never rolled back. Every component of his thought was geared toward not simply transcending but definitively solving otherness. Augustine envisioned human beings as actually responsible for non-identity's existence and so as capable of doing away with it through orientating their action in such a way as to remedy the primordial error that was its cause. Paradoxically for Augustine it was agency itself that was the problem, man's self assertion had caused him to fall away from his divine nature, yet the error that accompanied Adam's agency could be cancelled out by obedient human action. Totality, obedience, and man as the cause of otherness were interlinked, inextricable elements of his approach. Following the discussion of Augustine's theology I proceed to examine the origins and characteristics of three other transformative ideologies or worldviews in Western history; the idealistic, the social, and the transcendental of Francesco Petrarch, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Arthur de Gobineau respectively. The crux of my argument is that the unique characteristics of Augustine's search for certainty created a sort of sure and stable foundation on which later ideologies which restricted the subject, so as to solve non-identity, could build and flourish. I show how each stemmed from individual attempts to come to terms with the otherness that overshadows human existence by putting forth definitive answers to the question of what man is. By contrasting the figures I then show, in the conclusion of this work, that Augustine's approach while powerful and reassuring was ultimately self-destructive. This is because Augustine's monolithic conception of human nature limited man's ability to appreciate and work with otherness and at the same time it created an expectation that human understanding should ultimately be error free. As becomes clear at the end of the project, the restriction of agency to contend with non-identity ultimately had the effect of eliminating non-identity itself. Reality came increasingly to be perceived as mundane and self-evident as the importance attributed to the subject diminished in the later figures, thereby demonstrating by way of example the interdependence of the two as Adorno argued. While the works examined constitute a niche in intellectual history it is nonetheless a highly influential one. This dissertation, at the very least, identifies an approach to non-identity and a conception of the subject that was a counterpart, perhaps even a predecessor or progenitor, to the rationality that predominates in modernity and which the critical theorists of the Frankfurt School criticized so vociferously

The philosophy of William James as related to Charles Renouvier, Henri Bergson, Maurice Blondel and Emile Boutroux

This thesis argues two issues: William James\u27 philosophy was-to a great extent derived from his interaction with the French philosophers, Charles Renouvier, Henri Bergson, Maurice Blondel and Emile Boutroux. Correlative to the fact that these five figures have an intellectual relationship with one another, I also argue that in order to understand James, he must be placed within the context of these relations. These five philosophers, as a group, can be clearly seen and understood in the context of an identifiable movement. Each one was a part of a whole reality with their own slightly different perspectives. However, the context that I present reveals the motivating factors of this movement towards a philosophy of action. This is not to say that there was one defined philosophy of action. Each contributed to the conception of a philosophy of action by their response to the same dilemmas of their time

Ontological Catastrophe: Žižek and the Paradoxical Metaphysics of German Idealism

In Ontological Catastrophe, Joseph Carew takes up the central question guiding Slavoj Žižek philosophy: How could something like phenomenal reality emerge out of the meaninglessness of the Real? Carefully reconstructing and expanding upon his controversial reactualization of German Idealism, Carew argues that Žižek offers us an original, but perhaps terrifying, response: experience is possible only if we presuppose a prior moment of breakdown as the ontogenetic basis of subjectivity. Drawing upon resources found in Žižek, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and post-Kantian philosophy, Carew thus develops a new critical metaphysics—a metaphysics which is a variation upon the late German Idealist theme of balancing system and freedom, realism and idealism, in a single, self-reflexive theoretical construct—that challenges our understanding of nature, culture, and the ultimate structure of reality

'Conventions are conventions.....’: Some thoughts about the techniques of direction and misdirection – with particular reference to genre features - in the novels of Vladimir Nabokov, and an assessment of their intentions and effects.

The thesis deals with the development of Nabokov's treatment of a number of the more common routes and courses which are traditionally supplied by the author to ease the passage of the reader through fiction. It attempts to show how these marked paths and familiar signposts - 'melodrama,' 'totalitarian novel,' 'biography,' 'erotic confession,' 'critical edition,' 'family chronicle, 'mystery story,' and 'autobiographical confession' - emerge in the books as equally misguiding and misguided. The satisfactory application of such labels is demonstrated as becoming progressively more difficult as the novels proceed, with a rising degree of sophistication, to incorporate distinctive combinations of genre features usually considered as mutually exclusive. Further inquiries into the manner of fictional orientation and location encouraged by this regular disappointment of apparently familiar leads and landmarks, however, is increasingly seen to disclose the underlying procedures and desires of the reader to place and confine narrative. The manner in which Nabokov's reader is repeatedly obliged to return to a non-metaphorical 'first base' by way of these false trails, which seemingly point towards an authoritative text, and there to re-examine his own imaginative input is also traced..... Dull work recounting all this bores me to death. But yearn as I may to reach the crucial point quickly, a few preliminary explanations seem necessary

Ontological Catastrophe: Žižek and the Paradoxical Metaphysics of German Idealism

In Ontological Catastrophe, Joseph Carew takes up the central question guiding Slavoj Žižek philosophy: How could something like phenomenal reality emerge out of the meaninglessness of the Real? Carefully reconstructing and expanding upon his controversial reactualization of German Idealism, Carew argues that Žižek offers us an original, but perhaps terrifying, response: experience is possible only if we presuppose a prior moment of breakdown as the ontogenetic basis of subjectivity. Drawing upon resources found in Žižek, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and post-Kantian philosophy, Carew thus develops a new critical metaphysics—a metaphysics which is a variation upon the late German Idealist theme of balancing system and freedom, realism and idealism, in a single, self-reflexive theoretical construct—that challenges our understanding of nature, culture, and the ultimate structure of reality

Some Aspects of Christology: A Dialogical Approach From an African Perspective With Special Reference to the Theology of Otto Weber

Otto Weber's dialogical Christology distinguishes itself in not only offering a framework that eliminates the problem of a one-sided emphasis on incarnational Christology over that of the Cross, the 'above' over that of the 'below' by correlating both, but also as one in which there is an exemplification of the Christological discourse in its character of a continuous dialogue and critical engagement with predecessors and contemporaries; in which the particular or contextual finds continuity and critique in the universal, the cultural in the biblical, and one in which the concern to do justice to the inner dynamic in the Christian witness do not conceal the variety of its representation. Recent Christological discussions and debates show the recognition of the problem and shortcomings of a one-sided approach and the stress on one aspect against others. But few attempts seem to have been made to address the subject in a way that this is overcome and what belongs to the very nature of Christological discourse is exemplified. Hence the concern to do so in this attempt. In order to set Otto Weber's contribution in perspective. Chapter One examines the context and intention of his theology. This starts with a panorama of the theological trends in the German Protestantism of his upbringing; highlights on the theological crisis of the 1920s resulting from the experiences of the First World War and the emergence of dialectic theology; a process which culminated in Hitler's rise to power and the re-examination of the central question of the criterion of Christian witness and theology; the shift from the ontological question for theology to the relationship between revelation and history. After a brief biographical sketch in Chapter two, there is an examination of Otto Weber's background anthropology in Chapter Three. An undertaking that shows his concern to align the Christian acknowledgement of God's Lordship in faith with the character of Christian conduct and experience. The over-riding thesis being that the person and event of Jesus Christ exemplifies what humanity really is before God. In Chapter four is a preoccupation with Otto Weber's Christology. The immediate concern is an outline of his aim, method and structure of representation. This involves an analysis of 'above' and 'below' approaches to Christology, the former exemplifying classical Christology's concern to speak of the reality of God's prior superiority and majesty. And yet the criticism that is directed to its exponents such as Karl Barth is whether adequate attention has been paid to the fact that God's majesty is encountered solely in his condescension. Contemporary formulations of Christology exemplify the dominance of the latter. First with the quest of the historical Jesus school and with Wolfhart Pannenberg's conception of Christology as an inquiry into what Jesus was, but also with Christologies of the Cross. But the criticism and adoption of the correlative approach by Weber is given by the fact that the event of Jesus Christ do25not exemplify God as 'solely above' or 'solely below' but rather the God of man. Then there is the dialogical and discussive treatment of the Biblical witness to Jesus Christ, the examination of the whole question of Christ and history, and the Christology of the Church then and now. The basic thesis that emerges from these, and one which serves as a critique of traditional Christology right through to the ontemporary period, is that what one encounters in Jesus Christ is not a central point in a system, a model of human possibilities as was the case during the enlightenment, or a source of a new self-understanding which dominated the nineteenth and twentieth century through existentialist philosophy, but the salvation event of Jesus Christ, God's act of confrontation with the human creature. Chapter five, which serves as the beginning of the second part of the thesis, therefore, examines the Christianization of Africa; the experience of missionary Christianity and theology, the challenge of emancipation spirit and the resultant quest for African theology in the diversity of its representation. In Chapter Six is an examination of the emergent perspectives in Africa's contemporary theology. This includes exposure to the challenge of indigenization and the question of appropriate methodology which unites both the witness and the theology of the Christian faith; and the treatment of the dominant themes that have come to characterise this particular perspective. And it is within this context that the examination of that which is the centre of religious authority sets in perspective the treatment of the question of Christology in Chapter Seven. The insights gained from the two parts of the thesis are applied in a synthesized summary in Chapter Eight; the concluding reflection exemplifying the challenge of that greater dialogue; the confrontation and fellowship of God with us in Jesus the Christ. One where it can be said, 'It is no longer because of your words , we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the World' (John 4: 42 - RSV)

Ontological catastrophe: žižek and the paradoxical metaphysics of German idealism

In Ontological Catastrophe, Joseph Carew takes up the central question guiding Slavoj Žižek philosophy: How could something like phenomenal reality emerge out of the meaninglessness of the Real? Carefully reconstructing and expanding upon his controversial reactualization of German Idealism, Carew argues that Žižek offers us an original, but perhaps terrifying, response: experience is possible only if we presuppose a prior moment of breakdown as the ontogenetic basis of subjectivity. Drawing upon resources found in Žižek, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and post-Kantian philosophy, Carew thus develops a new critical metaphysics—a metaphysics which is a variation upon the late German Idealist theme of balancing system and freedom, realism and idealism, in a single, self-reflexive theoretical construct—that challenges our understanding of nature, culture, and the ultimate structure of reality

Ontological Catastrophe: Zizek and the Paradoxical Metaphysics of German Idealism

In Ontological Catastrophe, Joseph Carew takes up the central question guiding Slavoj Žižek’s philosophy: How could something like phenomenal reality emerge out of the meaninglessness of the Real? Carefully reconstructing and expanding upon his controversial reactualization of German Idealism, Carew argues that Žižek offers us an original, but perhaps terrifying, response: experience is possible only if we presuppose a prior moment of breakdown as the ontogenetic basis of subjectivity. Drawing upon resources found in Žižek, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and post-Kantian philosophy, Carew thus develops a new critical metaphysics—a metaphysics which is a variation upon the late German Idealist theme of balancing system and freedom, realism and idealism, in a single, self-reflexive theoretical construct—that challenges our understanding of nature, culture, and the ultimate structure of reality

Entrepreneurs by the grace of God: life and work of seamstresses in Bolgatanga, Ghana

This research project aims at understanding the expectations and motivations of young women in Ghana's Upper East region to start their own business. Supporting the owners of small-scale businesses in the informal economy has become a central objective of the global development agenda. Using an anthropological approach, this research intends to contribute to, and criticize, the dominant discourse on the need to advance entrepreneurship. The central research question is: what are individual, cultural and contextual factors that shape the decision of young women in Bolgatanga to enroll in a seamstress apprenticeship and in which ways do these factors relate to the wider debate on promoting entrepreneurship as a development strategy? Based on the material presented in this thesis, I argue that the theoretical arguments underlying efforts to advance entrepreneurship among the poor are fundamentally flawed. There are three cross-cutting issues that need to be taken into account when we discuss entrepreneurship as a development strategy. These issues are relevant for the situation of seamstresses in Bolgatanga, but also apply to a wider field. These issues are: the weak conceptualization of entrepreneurship in development discourse, the neglect of the socio-economic context in which "entrepreneurial" activities take place, the importance of cultural and psychological factors, and the ongoing attractiveness that entrepreneurship carries for development policymakers. Based on the stories of seamstresses in Bolgatanga, this thesis is an appeal to rethink policies designed to promote (female) entrepreneurship among the poor. It calls into question the portrayal of self-employment as "entrepreneurship" and the depiction of poverty as an individual problem.ASC – Publicaties niet-programma gebonde

Nijhoff's symbolism

Nijhoff's symbolism develops from a close orientation to the fringe world of the French Symbolists, with Christian culture and contemporary Dutch Post-Symbolists providing further sources of influence. A study of psychological and literary background and of Nijhoff's own poetic theories helps to determine what his symbols mean. A change of attitude which Nijhoff underwent between the publication of the volumes 'Vormen' (1924) and 'Nieuwe Gedichten'(1934) as a result of which he starts to express a belief in and liking for the real world, though retaining an amount of counteraction between real and ideal, brings his symbolism to an orientation in the real world and makes it more complex and extensive, while maintaining its function of conveying correspondences with another life, another world, a distant universe or imaginary ideals. He abandons a mood of reluctant withdrawal and drops former imitations in order to deal with his own personality and situations directly, to expand the narrative element and make poems symbolic for their story, and to give figures a more independent characterisation. Definite patterns of consistency throughout his poetry are found in recurrent major symbols such as mother, child, martyr, street, journey, bird and boat, and themes of death, dualism and religion. Basic wish impulses are continued, but become transposed to new surroundings, and eventually no longer related to an 'I-figure', but to other people. With the extension of symbolism into common surroundings, it becomes less monolithic and less comparative in type, not so predominantly a projection of the poet's own mental state, but more ambiguous and suggestive, relying more on inducing ideas in the reader, whose own capacity for symbolic determination is given increased scope.<p